PROTHANE FRONT BUMPSTOP WRITEUP

So I know that I am among a few that are doing this but I thought I would get this up so we can all build ideas.

You need to make a cap for the prothanes so that the stock bump does not kill it. I opted to do the cap out of 2.5"x2.5"x.180 welded to the top of a 2" piece of 1.5"tube. The 1.5" tube fits snugg inside the prothane with no mods.
Here is the cap



I also made a base so that the bump would not be free. Some say that it being free is ok but I just figured why not. One thing to note is that after welding the base on my coil bucket I now have to unbolt my trac bar to get my coils out.

Here is the base that is also a 1.5" tube.



Now just paint your junk and install the coils with the prothane loose in them and when the coil is on you can slide the prothane onto the base.



I have not tested these and I do not know how much they compress. I would highly recomend thinking about how long of a bumpstop you need and if anything make it bigger then you expect to need. Keep in mind your stock bumpstop will compress aswell as the prothanes. I bought the 10.5" prothanes but ended up using about 6.5".

Link to where I got mine. http://www.jegs.com/p/Prothane/762170/10002/-1

I hope to have a review by tomorrow and maybe a video too.arty:
Have fun guys
Chadwick

Goatman indicated that with a 12" travel shock, with 6" of up/down travel, he's runnning a 2.5" airgap. My measurements are nearly identical.

Had a similar thought about keeping them centered on the base plate instead of letting them float in the coil, only my plan is to use a 1.5" OD piece of tube, with the top capped and a welded in bolt protruding from the bottom, secured with a nut below the spring baseplate. This way they can simply unbolt, if the coil needs to come off.

I didn't get mine installed in time, so we'll see how yours work today.......see you at Sand Mtn.

Have you thought about drilling a hole in the top plate there, so the air can escape when it compresses?

My only worry about this is: If the Prothanes compress enough to make the two pieces of tubing at both ends hit each other you might have a problem. I think I read somewhere (goatman or cracker) said they compress quite a bit, I'd just be worried about the tubes hitting each other before it really compresses enough to slow the suspension down.

xjjeeper19 said:

My only worry about this is: If the Prothanes compress enough to make the two pieces of tubing at both ends hit each other you might have a problem. I think I read somewhere (goatman or cracker) said they compress quite a bit, I'd just be worried about the tubes hitting each other before it really compresses enough to slow the suspension down.

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There is a bit of room between them(like 3"+). Im not really worried.

crazyjim said:

Have you thought about drilling a hole in the top plate there, so the air can escape when it compresses?

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The air can escape out the bottom of the stock coil bucket.

So I treid them out today and wow they work great! Very progressive and not harsh at all. I have hit two small jumps on these and my rear poly setup and they perform very good. I also have to add that my FOA's work very well. No video yet because my camera was being a douche.

i also have concerns about the 2 pieces of tubing hitting eachother.

and on a side note, do you really need to have each of your threads start in ALL CAPS? stop yelling man we're all friends here

slcpunk74 said:

So I treid them out today and wow they work great! Very progressive and not harsh at all. I have hit two small jumps on these and my rear poly setup and they perform very good. I also have to add that my FOA's work very well. No video yet because my camera was being a douche.

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Glad to hear their working good. Which FOA's do you have?

GrimmJeeper said:

i also have concerns about the 2 pieces of tubing hitting eachother.

and on a side note, do you really need to have each of your threads start in ALL CAPS? stop yelling man we're all friends here

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I guess if I make them all look like every other thread good tech could fade away. Didnt mean to piss you off there. If nobody wants me posting I will stop but I am only trying to help and I dont think knocking on me is very productive.

Looks good dude!

I also had the same concern about the tubes hitting each other, but I have hydro bumps, so they would compress if/when the bump tubes hit.

I don't think anybodies knockin ya, It's just a little friendly ribbing.


~C!~

dakineJ said:

Glad to hear their working good. Which FOA's do you have?

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2.5x10 up front
2.0x16 out back

XJEEPER said:

Goatman indicated that with a 12" travel shock, with 6" of up/down travel, he's runnning a 2.5" airgap. My measurements are nearly identical.

Had a similar thought about keeping them centered on the base plate instead of letting them float in the coil, only my plan is to use a 1.5" OD piece of tube, with the top capped and a welded in bolt protruding from the bottom, secured with a nut below the spring baseplate. This way they can simply unbolt, if the coil needs to come off.

I didn't get mine installed in time, so we'll see how yours work today.......see you at Sand Mtn.

Click to expand...

Make sure you add pics and what not. I started this thread in the hopes that it could be a general prothane tech article. Hey plus most people dont seam to like the way I did it so maybe they will like your way better.:cheers:

How do you figure out the compressed height of these things so that you're not wasting travel?
Thanks,
Billy

I picked up a set of the 10.5"s so I could have two sets, one for trails(3 ribs) and one for jumping(4 ribs). I had to drill about 20 1/2 holes in them to soften them up, before they where way to hard, now it's like landing on a cloud. I'm running 3.5"RE zj coils with f-250 front shocks in front(shocks work great for a set of free longer shocks). I have not made a 'landing' plate for them yet and not sure if I will, have not had an issue getting speared on the bump tower.

I feel they are money well spent, sorry for the poor post details, fighting a cold...andy miobi.org

JeepFreak21 said:

How do you figure out the compressed height of these things so that you're not wasting travel?
Thanks,
Billy

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make them longer then you need and run a zip tie on your shock, go jump it and do the math. I just guessed and it seems pretty close so far.

slcpunk74 said:

make them longer then you need and run a zip tie on your shock, go jump it and do the math. I just guessed and it seems pretty close so far.

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Thanks!
Billy

JeepFreak21 said:

Thanks!
Billy

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Yeah SWAG is a great system. I really just guessed and watched what my shock shafts did. I really dont know how much they compress because I have not done the math yet.

"UPDATE"

I was hitting some whoops about 50mph and it was doing great. After hitting the whoops super hard I went home and flexed out in my driveway to inspect my suspension. Long story short I need to add an inch or so to the prothanes because I bottomed my shock and bent one of the mounts "OUCH!". It wil be an easy fix and I will post up my lengths in 5 mins so we all know ho much they compress.

1.5" gap between the prothane and the stock foam bump. I think the stock bump could compress somewhere around 1.5" and I bottomed all 5" (at ride hight)of my shock shaft so we can figure that my prothanes can compress around 2.5-3.5".
So I guess I can add another 1.5" to my prothanes(which is easy due to my tube design) or get some poly bumps that replace the stock weiners. I will just add some prothane for now but maybe later on get poly weiner replacers.

Also a good not is that I found nice foam bumpstops off of a 96ish blazer rear. I looked at them and they could sit inside a coil and you could cap the top just like a prothane. I might do a blazer bump writeup just for fun and good tech.

crappy pic